Balatro

Out of an abundance of caution, I don't think I could ever recommend an American studying in Iran given the current political climate.

Vandy has, from others' experience, been known to lowball initial FA offers. Others have reported that when they contacted the school and reiterated how much they wanted to attend but that their initial FA offering was hampering that dream, that VDS (almost) always replied back with a more generous offer. Yea, about a year ago there was someone going through the Religion forum with multiple accounts massively downvoting mine and several other's posts. A couple of us accumulated downvotes in excess of 100 as a result of it but the Moderators refused to get involved. Most of the downvotes centered around discussion of YDS, for what that's worth.

Yes -- well, anything above $0 is large for a M* but the stipends tend to hover around $10k, some less, some more. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/catalogs/divinity/divinity.pdf#fin has some information on the various scholarships. Almost all of the stipends are tied to merit scholarships but a former undergrad classmate did receive a stipend not tied to a merit scholarship but I have no idea how common that is.

This is hearsay, granted from a close friend who is at PTS for a PhD, having done his MDiv there as well, but faculty and students are feeling that PTS is becoming too conservative. This seems odd for this to come to a potential head now, as when I visited several years back, I got the impression then that it was a very conservative place (compared to other places I toured - Vandy, Yale, Union, and Harvard).

On the topic of sacred space and to even include monasticism/asceticism - where would you suggest prospective students to study such a field? Belden Lane at SLU is obviously good for sacred space. I know WMU has something going on with monasticism in their Medieval Studies department and St. John's has an MA in Theology concentrated in Monastic Studies but I know nothing of the reputation of either school. Obviously depending on what exactly you're interested in studying, you could go historical, theological, or even sociological in your approach so really just general input would be helpful.

Give it a couple more years and it'll change, early 2000s it seemed every 3rd essay referenced Nietzsche when I was working as a Student Assistant to the Adcoms, now it's Foucault.

Your work experience will definitely work in your favor and I think you'll have a rather competitive chance of getting into one or both, that said though...I'd say your chances of acceptance is in the 60-70% range (incredibly, incredibly subjective numbers) and the only reason I say that is because the MAR/MTS competition is harder than the MDiv since it's an academic degree so their expectations for your performance in the program are naturally higher.

Yale may not be as powerful as it was in the 70's but I wouldn't say it has lost its thunder by any means. A rather large proportion of their students go on to PhD programs - history, english/literature, religious studies, social work, and sociology being the big ones (no particular order). I found the community to be incredibly lively and involved (on campus and the wider New Haven community). Academically, I found myself very engaged and challenged - while I didn't personally pursue a PhD program at this point in my life, many of my professors asked if I was considering applying to their PhD and even went so far as offering to serve as advisors (while never confirmed, I took it as a "If you apply, I can guarantee you acceptance."). Being an Episcopalian I felt very comfortable at Yale - Episcopalians make up a large part of the student body. Also, being a heterosexual male deeply interested in gender studies, sexuality, and feminist interpretations of the Bible made me a bit of an oddity according to most I spoke with and that perhaps fueled my professors giving me extra attention and encouragement while at Yale. Anyway, I loved my time at Yale and it's my #1 choice should I decide to pursue a PhD. I think Emory is an amazing school, their Divinity School included - they seem to be really on top of social activism/justice. As far as what the community is like and the academic rigor of their program, I can't say. Duke is a great school, but for me, an actual community is important and the fact that Duke didn't have Divinity housing made me decline their offer.

Yes. Given good LORs, nothing unusual in your PS, etc. - With your background/life experiences and the fact that you have, by all reasonable means, thrived...I think the programs will try to gobble you up as quick as possible. While I was at Yale, there were 3 active duty soldiers (Army) in the MDiv program with mine and I know 2 of them were given generous financial offers and notified of their acceptance weeks before most of us.

The admission rates at some of these schools, on a bad year, hovers around 30% but is generally somewhere between 40-50%. Duke, Vanderbilt, Princeton (technically it's Princeton Theological Seminary since it's not officially a part of Princeton University), Emory, and Claremont are all denominational schools. They admit people not attached to their denomination ALL the time, but I want to make sure that you're aware of their affiliation. Harvard, Yale, and Union are non-denominational but have large and influential groups from certain denominations -- Harvard and Yale tend to attract a lot of Episcopalians, Union I *think* leans toward Methodism. Since you'll be applying for an MDiv program, the Adcoms are going to want to know "how" you found God and how you intend to do ministry work. Essentially they want to know why you've chosen to attend seminary - how/why is it required for you to attend in order to obtain your end goal/mission/calling. What is your calling to seminary other than "I found God" or "I like a good sermon." Should you later decide to seek ordination in a denomination, your Bishop (or the equiv.) is essentially going to ask the same...Why do you feel called to become a priest, rather than a heavily involved member, or even a deacon (for example). Generally I advise people to answer these questions ahead of time and be very careful in your word choice. I've had plenty of Bishops - Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc tell me that when they ask an interested applicant this question, they know if they're qualified to move on by the time they finish the first sentence in their response. Really you raised the first major red flag: This is a 180 degree change for you and you have no ministerial or religious education background. So, why attend seminary? If your goal is to simply become a teacher and that's the god you 'found'...an academic degree is probably going to be a better fit. Stat wise (age, gpa, lawyer)...I think you're fine. If you applied to every school, you'd get in somewhere if not most/all places. The big question I see is "Why?" --- and that you need to think about. A lot of these schools are going to want academic references but also ministerial references of some degree, who'd write yours?

Naropa University isn't as "virtually unknown" as you might believe it is - while I can't account for their Undergrad program per se, several of their MA (Religious Studies) graduates go on to wonderful PhD programs - Chicago, UCLA, UCSB, Harvard, Oxford, etc. Speaking of Naropa, I do have a high school student that I tutor who has spoken of Naropa - perhaps you could PM your understanding of the school's climate, academics, etc or I could simply pass on his contact info if you'd prefer. Getting into UVA is rough from what I understand (no personal experience here). According to an outdated Admissions page (http://artsandscienc...pply/index.html), their usual successful applicants fall somewhere around here: GPA: 3.7 (they due note that this is from a competitive school - naturally I presume they take grade inflation schools into account) Old GRE V: 650-750 *Most RS programs don't look too hard at your Q score unless your proposed area involves some heavy statistics, in which case you'd probably be in an Anthropology or Sociology program anyway. I can't speak for your writing score in relation to UVA, but I suspect that it's too low for them. So, using my lazy math formula of ((GRE score * 15) - 1750) - your score of 158 would put you somewhere around 620 on the old system, which is obviously below their stated range. I also have to assume that competition for acceptance has since increased enough that if acceptance was ONLY based on GRE (and it's not), you'd probably not get in. Be aware that the stated GRE is for PhD applicants, though UVA states that their MA students generally score about the same as their PhD applicants - also keep in mind that I'm assuming competition has increased. That said - I'd still apply anyway. Your statement of purpose, LORs, proposed course of study, etc are really going to be what makes the decision. Your scores aren't low enough to get chopped by any kind of cutoff point so it'll be the above points that I named which really make your application shine. The website I linked above mentions that the quickest path to rejection for MA applicants is to apply for a program outside of their academic competence. Other than that, I only hope that you're applying to schools other than UVA.

Yes and no. It depends on the school, foremost and secondily on the program that you're applying to. Your typical Judeo-Christian applicant is a dime a dozen, really. While that will probably be good enough to get you into your standard M* program, places like Harvard are really looking for students who are approaching the study of religion from an unusual/different viewpoint than say your middle class Episcopalian or Methodist may have access to (which isn't to say such applicants don't get accepted - they do). At Harvard in particular, since that's the school in discussion, they like applicants with an edge - say someone studying Feminist/Queer Theory in relation to Native American religion (or even Christianity infused with a Native American perspective). I guess the best way to put it is that you need to sell yourself to the school. You're asking Harvard to date you long term (2-3 years at least) and what's the best way to get a foot in the door? Show why you're different and unique and not just a run of the mill applicant that wants to study Christianity. Show them that you want to study the intersection of Religion and Healthcare, with a particular focus on bioethics, end of life, bereavement, etc and that on top of it you spent most of your childhood homeless and want to approach it from the viewpoint of margianlized populations (using myself as an example). However, do NOT fake it. Places like Harvard get hundreds/thousands of applicants a year and they know a bullshitter when they see one. They'll spot you a mile away either lying about your intentions or stretching them (telling a tall tale). It's the quickest path to the rejection pile. I've seen applicants with subpar scores get in solely b/c of their experiences and what they want to study, and I've seen wonderful applicants (on paper) who the Adcoms could tell were only saying what they thought they needed to in order to get in and then had every intention of jumping ship and switching to another focus/professor. So, to answer it more directly....Yes, I think having a unique interest helps a lot but it needs to be backed up. If you're a white, middle class, mainstream Protestant that wants to study say comparative religion (Christianity and Buddhism) and you have nothing in a writing sample, PS, or LORs that backs up the interest and shows you've already started down that road of intellectual discussion...you're file is probably already in the trashcan.

I wouldn't bother with retaking it, personally. If you improve, it's likely to be by a few points at best - by few, I mean like 3. If you retake it and score worse than you did originally...it won't hurt necessarily but 1) You'll probably beat yourself up over it, 2) Waste of money, 3) I think your application will be on the sort list anyway pending a nice writing sample and solid LORs. If you're set on Harvard, I'd even suggest looking at their MDiv program. It gives you an extra year of courses and building connections with professors (I assume your end goal is a PhD?) and HDS has the extra benefit of allowing you to cater your entire coursework toward the religious tradition that you're there to study (once again, I presume Islam given the Arabic training and Poli Sci), so you're not required to approach it from a Christian PoV like you would at say Candler for example. The acceptance rate for HDS's MDiv is significantly higher than their MTS and from what I've seen, their funding for MDiv students is more generous as well.

If your goal is to teach at an Ivy or a Tier 1 LAC, then yes IU-B may cause evaluators to take a second look but that isn't the endall. Many graduates come from state schools and achieve prestigious positions - I've sat on Faculty Search Committees as a student, as I'm sure others have as well. Sure, seeing an applicant as a grad from HYPCD made us pay a little more attention to their profile off the bat, but we also looked at other sources - where, what, and how often they're published, videos of lectures/classrooms if they're available, generally we can contact references and get access to redacted student evaluations from the past year or two. Often the usual profile information we have to go on is removed from the material we're evaluating -- we were given something they published, edited videos, student evaluations, etc and the question we were often asked is "Would you take a class from this prof?" and that, maybe more than anything, helped us narrow down the field to 2-4 professors who were invited to come out and tour the school, meet and greet, and over 1-2 days they would conduct a class(es) for anywhere from 30-90 minutes for select students, faculty, and administation. Often we were evenly split over a professor and the classroom demonstration is what made or broke the employment offer. Anyway...provided your research is solid, you're not too socially awkward (lets face it, people who cramp themselves in libraries for 4-6 years and shun social interaction -- they're "special"), the Rel. Studies market hasn't completely crashed, etc --- you'll find a job with a liveable wage doing what you love.

I doubt you could be "too liberal" at Union or HDS - there is, at Yale, a minority voice of students and faculty that want to "redefine" Christianity for a modern world (or as Spong's book is titled, Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World) that has some interesting and thought provoking conversations but they're a minority for now.

Yale and Harvard have several Episcopalians/Anglicans on their faculty - Yale even has Berkeley, which I'm sure you're aware of. Duke has some prominent Anglicans on their faculty but two (they were married) have since returned to England, the husband accepted a position as Dean of something, I believe. While at Yale I took part in the semester abroad to Westcott House (attached to the U. of Cambridge), which was an experience that was simply amazing. In fact, so much so that I got approval to spend my entire middler year in Cambridge and do some research on the writings of Rowan Williams - particularly focusing on the rift within the Episcopal Church regarding gender and sexuality, some ethical pieces too. As far as how the degrees differ from US and UK - UK degrees generally take a shorter time to obtain but that's because students are expected to come in with the foundation already completed on what they intend to study, there's generally no taking courses for 1-2 years to establish a prospective thesis. UK degrees are also, from my perspective, much more writing and research intensive. Two members of my graduating class that I knew well, went to the UK for PhD (D.Phil) programs and mentioned that they generally had 10-15k word papers constantly in the pipeline being worked on, in addition to keeping on top of their dissertation where the suggested guideline for its length was somewhere around 75,000-100k words (I believe about 300 pages?). I haven't had conversations regarding the intensity of a PhD thesis in the US but from what I've read, they're at times about half as long. Most of the D.Phil students/graduates that I know were privately funded - either directly (they took out loans/paid for it out of pocket) or were awarded fellowships/scholarships to study in the UK. Using US Federal Aid is hit and miss, not all UK schools are approved to receive funding but several all. Generally, any kind of bursary coverage from the school itself is out of the question for non-EU students since it comes from the government, which we're not entitled to. I've heard rumors that it's easier for Americans to get accepted into places like Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, etc b/c we are essentially private pay (you'll pay an international student rate for tuition and fees, and the money doesn't come from the school/government) so it's more money in the school's pocket and apparently some of these schools are more welcoming of US students because of this. Really though, your best bet is to first contact the schools you're interested in studying at and inquiring about financial aid resources for US students (most of them have everything you'll need online) and contacting current and former students and see how they funded their studies - they'll be your best bet for potential fellowships and scholarships which could finance your program if the university isn't approved for federal aid.

For liberation theology, I'd probably focus on Harvard or Union. Union has Dr. Kone (I believe he's still there, not sure if he teaches still), generally regarded as the founder of modern lib. theology - primarily dealing with it in an African focus. Union also has Dr. Dorrien who works within liberation theology a lot too. I believe Harvard has more of a Latin American focus but don't quote me on that. For ethics, at least the kind you'd find at a Divinity School, which tends to be more religiously focused (or medical) - I'd say any school attached to a major university, particularly one with a graduate program in philosophy and a medical school, will provide you ample opportunities to study and research ethics. Harvard has extensive resources, as does Duke and Emory

Add PTS to that list of div schools that prepare students for further PhD work - amazing school and resources, I just overlooked it when haphazardly penning the reply before I had to head into the lab.

Harvard doesn't require you to outline the courses or a plan of study you plan to undertake - they do require you to submit an essay though, which is really more of a "Why do you feel the call to an MDiv and why ours." When I did it a couple years back, I used it as more of a personal reflection essay and it seemed to go well. Harvard only requires an abstract of courses from ThD applicants. I can't speak for Chicago since their MDiv program is a bit funky nowadays. If you're looking for an MDiv that will prepare you for graduate school (further study - PhD), I'd stick with places like Harvard, Yale, Union, Duke, Vanderbilt, Claremont, Chicago, and maybe 2-3 others if you had a geographical preference. I know Harvard, Yale, and Duke are VERY generous with financial aid - every student I knew at Yale was given at least a 50% tuition waiver and a lot of us were given free rides. Coming into the program, more is expected of an MA applicant than an MDiv since the MA is entirely academic whereas the MDiv can go either way (academic or 'service') so the MDiv requirements/expectations are a little lower. This is in some part due to MAs are required to do in 1-2 years what an MDiv does in 3, but in the MDiv program there are so many electives that creating an MDiv program with an academic nature is easy to accomplish and becoming more and more common. Getting into a MA program is much harder than an MDiv at any school I listed (save Chicago) - I'd say acceptance rates for the MA are somewhere around 20% and the MDiv has commonly fluctuated between 30-50%. Funding for an MA is usually significantly lower than the MDiv too.

FLAS Fellowships are rather competitive to come by but this in large part depends on the school, the competition, the language being studied, etc. Getting a FLAS Fellowship to study Modern Greek is definitely doable, but graduate programs in religious studies are going to be more interested in your familiarity with Koine Greek. Latin is probably out of the question entirely since FLAS Fellowships are (I believe) only given for the study of modern languages and area studies. Arabic is claimed as the language a lot and would be a possibility, again though your studies would probably be pretty strictly limited to modern times. I'm getting the impression that you aren't really sure what you're interested in studying, would this be correct?

That depends entirely on what you want to study (field of study, time period, etc) and what degree (I assume you're more interested in the MA?). If you're wanting to study say Early Christianity - Greek and Latin will be more important than Arabic (generally) and Greek would hold more importance than Latin (again, generally speaking). It's my opinion that studying Greek on an undergraduate level gets more attention than Latin only because Latin is still fairly commonly taught in schools (I'm referring to public schools specifically), so some of the people who study it in college got the foundation in HS and just kept with it. Whereas, the students who take Greek in college are generally self-selecting, that is, they studied it because of a genuine interest and it's usually important to their major and/or career prospects. I don't mean to imply that the kids who go from HS to college and stick with Latin aren't doing the same but they obviously have an advantage over Freshman level Greek students. Really, it's hard to answer the question without knowing what you're interested in studying further. Yes, Greek and Latin are helpful but they won't be if say your aim is to study Religion in Americas, for example.

It honestly depends on the program/degree, school, and field. Language requirements for an MDiv (as an applicant) is almost completely unheard of - sure Christian based schools will generally require Greek and/or Hebrew during the program, but not before acceptance. Harvard on the other hand just requires 3 semesters (I could be wrong on the required semesters) in a single language (You can use anything from French, to Aramaic, to Tibetan, and anything inbetween). For an MA, it depends on the strength of the department/school, imo - HYP, Chicago, etc generally expect some language experience applying for an MA but it doesn't have to be overboard, probably 2+ years worth in the major language(s) would show that you're a serious applicant. Most colleges seem to offer official courses or an independent study in Greek and/or Hebrew. Even more schools offer French and German which a reading level in one or both languages (esp. for PhD programs) will be required. Some fields within religious studies if you're interested in a PhD are going the route of multiple MAs - it's becoming more and more common for PhD students to have completed 2-3 MAs before they're accepted (it's not the norm, sure - but the rate of such students seems to be increasing). Most schools won't permit a student to enter into a MST without having completed an MDiv or equivalent first, so presumably there is already a language foundation.

HDS is a strong place for this, which you're obviously aware of. The conversation is indeed beginning to take root at Yale as Matt has mentioned (though to be fair, its been ongoing for years but is gaining steam). HDS may in fact be weakened by Jordan and Griffith being gone but they still have King (I think she does more early christianity), I've heard mixed reviews regarding Fennema, Pearson is visiting and I'm not aware of the length of her contract or when you may be arriving, there's Hollywood but I really know nothing of her except she has written in the field of queer studies and teaches in it. There are others that "spill" into the field of queer theology but I've primarily stuck to the Christian discipline -- there are some that deal with this topic from an Asian viewpoint (and others). I think Vanderbilt is a strong place for this - You have Ellen Armour, the amazing Amy-Jill Levine, and Dr. Sasson but I don't know how often she teaches as she is officially retired. It's more MDiv focused but Union is a place for this (as Matt mentioned) but so is EDS (Episcopal Divinity School - the school would also allow you access to courses through BTI). Within the EDS, and it hurts me to know this and pass it on, but EDS has become nicknamed LDS or Lesbian Divinity School for the attention it's giving to Queer Theology and its promotion of an 'Open Church.' I'd stay clear of Chicago but that's my personal opinion, when I interviewed there (6 years ago now), I got the impression that the school was moderate-leaning conservative and didn't really invest a lot of interest/resources into the field.

While there's no official recognition, the people I've known that attended PTS have said it's in name only. That there's a lot of co-mingling with fellow students, faculty, and groups. From what I understand, taking a class at Princeton isn't that hard to accomplish either but perhaps someone from PTS can shine some light on it.

Ann Braude will probably be your best bet as Lux stated. She's not listed as the Director of the WGSR program but she is the Director of the Women's Studies in Religion Program (which is officially separate from the WGSR field as part of the MTS). Odds are she's the person you need to speak with, if not she'll know who to put you in contact with.